Dempsey and Makepeace: After
by xLaramiex
Summary: A Dempsey and Makepeace fic - what happened after Guardian Angel?
1. Chapter 1

I have a feeling I'm going to have a distinct lack of reviews for this, on account of the fact that I don't think any of my usual readers will have seen Dempsey and Makepeace xD Though if you've got this far, I'd like to reassure you that you don't really have to have seen it to understand this. (though it may make more sense…)

(By the way, if you haven't seen it, there's not 4 people in this, just the 2. It's Harry Makepeace and James Dempsey. Oh, and they're both cops.)

--

Makepeace glared at Dempsey over the top of the cup of coffee he had just brought her (meant to placate her, she suspected), as she prepared to repeat yet again their most frequent argument.

"Dempsey, when are you going to get it into your head that half the work of a case is behind a desk?"

"Alright, alright, so you do the half in here and I'll do the half out there."

This only served to frustrate her further and she stood up, putting the coffee cup down, forgotten, on the desk. "In the whole time you've been here, you've not finished a single bit of paperwork! You always leave it to me. And you know the worst bit - I always let you!"

"Hey, Harry, calm down," he soothed her.

"Oh, 'calm down', you say, you have no intention of helping me though, do you? You're just going to swan off to some pub, pick up some girl and - and -" She broke off, too incensed to think of any words. She knew she was angry about something else too, but there was no way she was admitting it - especially to him. The fact was that the only reason she was here having this argument with him instead of settling down at home for a relaxing night of museum work with a glass of wine was the memory of him at that very museum - actually _begging_ her to come back. The sight of him leaving himself so vulnerable to her had prompted her to wonder if maybe he did feel more than he showed for her. 'I need you', he had said. Needed her to do his paperwork, maybe.

She blinked and remembered that he was stood in front of her looking slightly expectant to hear the end of her sentence. Dempsey, actually waiting for her to finish her argument? Unprecedented, she decided. Realising that sometime down the line she had forgotten to be angry with him, she redoubled her scowl. "While I'm here doing _your_ work," she finished.

Dempsey struggled for a moment against his instinctual response before it slipped out of him. "Sounds like a good night to me." He knew before the words left his mouth - hell, he knew before they had even formed in his brain - that it was the wrong thing to say, but it could not be unsaid now. All he could do was stand and listen to Harry hurl insults and curses at him. He couldn't really be bothered to argue: he knew that eventually she would cave and he would be off the hook. He felt a little bit guilty for leaving her to it every time, but, God, he hated deskwork.

Dimly he registered that she was ranting something about going back to the museum after all and suddenly realised that this was a lot more serious - and deeper - than he had thought. He found himself suddenly grateful that it was late and the office was empty; he had a feeling that this conversation was headed somewhere uncomfortable and he didn't much want spectators.

"Are you even listening, Dempsey?" Harry's frustrated tone cut through his thoughts.

"Sure, you think I'm an immature and irresponsible American and I should go find a really interesting way to kill myself," he repeated.

"Well make sure it's a very pain -" Her words were stopped by his lips on hers for just a second. Her words switched from monsoon to drought in an instant as she froze, her mouth still forming 'painful'.

"What was that?" she asked, and Dempsey saw genuine confusion in her frown. It had confused him - he hadn't realised he was going to do it.

"That, Harry, was a kiss, you ever heard of one?" He hoped the quip covered his concern.

Apparently it did, all too well, because her frown slipped into a scowl as she grabbed her bag, intending to leave. She was sick of his jokes, sick of the situation. "Damn you, Dempsey," she spat. "Go and crawl back under your rock." She was about to storm out when she felt a hand on her wrist - not restraining her, barely even touching her; nevertheless, the contact was there and she wasn't sure what to make of it. Her anger faded, dissipating further with his next words.

"Don't go, Harry," he said quietly.

He looked so open in that moment that she had to remind herself she was supposed to be angry with him, injecting a half-hearted sting into the words, "Why-ever not?"

"Because I wasn't kiddin' or jokin' around in that museum. I need you." The words tasted good after such a long time hidden away inside, so he said them again, unconsciously moving closer to her. "I need you."

Harry looked down at their interlocked fingers and wondered whether she had taken his hand or he had taken hers. James misinterpreted it as her avoiding his eyes and let go of her hand.

"Ya know, rejection is much easier to take when you're drunk out of your skull," he observed, sitting down behind the desk. He pulled a pile of paper towards him at random. He didn't want to work but leaving now would look like he was running away. Plus, they were going to have to find a way to work together now that - unless she went back to the museum. He went cold and looked up at her in alarm, only to find her standing directly beside him. He watched her perch on the arm of the chair and put her arm around him.

"You're an idiot, James," she said fondly.

"Oh, yeah? How d'you work that out?" he asked defensively.

Harry smiled down at him, looking amused. "At no point did I reject you. And yet you were jumping to conclusions. You are always lecturing people about it and here you are, doing it yourself." She leaned down and kissed him gently.

James smiled. "I'll have to sack myself," he replied, admitting in a round-about way that she was right.

Harry yawned and looked at her watch. "It's 11 o'clock. We should go to bed."

He raised his eyebrows at her suggestively.

Harry rolled her eyes. "You in your bed and me in mine," she clarified firmly.

James pulled her into a slow kiss. "I'll soon change your mind," he promised.

--

Hurrah!

Please review =)


	2. Chapter 2

_As requested, here is a sequel =) _

_I couldn't decide whether to call them by their surname or their first name. It's very strange to be calling Dempsey especially by his first name._

--

Harriet Makepeace stole a glance at the man sitting next to her. He was a New York cop who acted tough but was frequently as soft as warm butter. Ever since first meeting him she had been attracted to him because of his looks, but his spiky personality and blatant disregard for rules had kept her away. Over time, they had both changed, and she also now understood parts of him better and ignored other parts, until it had brought them to this point, sitting together on her sofa watching a film. He was stroking her arm very slowly, up and down, up and down.

She glanced at him again, remembering all the times they had shared. There had been good and bad, angry and upsetting, frustrating, elating and downright horrific, but of all her memories none of them quite matched her contentment at that moment.

"You keep smiling at me like that and I might just think you're enjoying yourself," James' gently teasing voice cut in.

She made her face blank and turned to him haughtily. "I'll stop smiling then," she said coolly. "Don't want you getting the wrong impression."

He kissed her on the lips until she couldn't help but smile and return it, and then he said simply, "I win," grinning at her smugly.

They had been together for just over three months, and in some ways it was as though nothing had changed. James still refused to do deskwork, Harry still refused to do it for him without a cup of tea, they still argued and ran and used their guns too often, and got told off and laughed. However, they were now spending even more time together: they would spend afternoons at the park or the quayside, and James had practically moved in, spending most nights on her sofa.

They had originally decided to keep things quiet, as they were not sure whether Spikings would approve, but after they'd been caught kissing passionately at work on three separate occasions they gave up the pretence.

Harry rested her head on James' shoulder. In the three months they'd been together, she still treated his pointed comments about bed with the same derision as she had before they were going out. One afternoon after she had shot him down particularly violently he asked if there was a particular reason she was against it.

"Given your track record I want to be sure I know your motivation before we get that far," she had explained dryly. "At this point you could still turn around and say this was all to get into my pants and we wouldn't be very worse off, but if you said that afterwards you wouldn't live much longer." He'd looked slightly hurt and tried to deny it, but in the end he had had to concede that she had a point.

"You're one hell of a woman, Harry," he said now, kissing the top of her head. Harry said nothing, just smiled, and they continued watching the film in silence until James turned his head to murmur, "How about we finish this wine and go to bed?"

He was expecting a firm negative, so was surprised when all Harry did was pull him into a slow kiss. The film was forgotten as they pressed their lips against the other. Harry made to pull away but James followed her, putting one hand on her cheek. The kiss sped up, became almost frantic. James broke the contact and began kissing her neck, and she tipped her head back, her eyes fluttering closed.

"Dempsey…" Harry sighed.

James paused to throw a grin up at her. "I think we're a bit past that now," he said softly, and began kissing her more gently.

Harry pushed him away and James felt a stab of unease as she stood, but a moment later she held out her hand to him. Before rising he kissed her fingers, and then Harry led him upstairs.

--

_Dempsey gets his way! XD_

_I don't know if I really like this chapter =/_

_Thanks to my marvellous/evil friend, there are now 4 more parts to this. Stay tuned and please review!_


	3. Chapter 3

_The first of four chapters in a hopefully rapid update. Three are the three times they're caught kissing at work as mentioned in the last chapter (I walked into that one) and the last chapter is something else I'm not telling you about just yet._

--

"Hey, Dempsey, are you still going out with that girl?"

Harry quietly choked on the tea Dempsey had just brought her. Luckily it went unnoticed in the busy office. She wiped her mouth surreptitiously, setting the cup down and looking over the desk at Dempsey. She wondered what he had told them.

"Sure am Chas, and she's got even more beautiful."

Chas laughed. "From what you were saying last week I wouldn't have thought that would be possible."

For a moment Harry was unsure what to make of the comment, but as Dempsey's eyes flickered over to her she felt her face grow hot. She stood up to hide the blush she suspected in a filing cabinet, though not before she caught Dempsey's smirk.

"How long has it been now?" Chas went on.

"Three glorious weeks," Dempsey replied contentedly.

"I didn't think you were capable of something that long," Dave put in.

"Sure!" Dempsey replied. "I had a girlfriend for ages back in the States. 'Course, she was a drunk, but still." The other two laughed, and Dave turned to Harry.

"What about you, Makepeace? Are you seeing anyone?"

Harry gave a tight smile, irritated that Dempsey was talking about her. "I don't like to kiss and tell," she said sweetly. As Dave and Chas exchanged knowing looks - not that they actually knew anything - she stood up. "I'm going to my _locker_," she said, putting a gentle emphasis on the word and making sure she was looking at Dempsey as she said it. "I'll be back soon."

As she walked away she heard Dempsey say; "Well, while the cats are away, the mice will go to the men's room. I haven't had a break in three hours."

Harry waited for him to catch up, and when he didn't she guessed that he had actually gone to the toilet. Hoping that he had got her message and would join her soon, she opened her locker and wondered what she could take up so as not to look suspicious. Mirror? No, they knew she was too involved in this case to be worrying about how she looked - it was two thirty and her lunch was still uneaten in her locker.

Aha - lunch.

The door opened behind her and she turned to see Dempsey. He stood and looked at her enquiringly for a moment, not quite sure what he was in trouble for.

"So what have you told them about your new girlfriend?" she asked. As he made to speak she went on; "I don't want to know. How dare you talk about me behind my back?"

"I was talking about you while you were there as well," he pointed out, still slightly nonplussed.

"I don't want you talking about me at all!" she exclaimed.

Before she burst a blood vessel Dempsey cut in; "Alright, alright, I won't talk about you any more. I'll tell 'em we…we split up or somethin'. Or she hadda go abroad."

Harry paused, considering. "Alright," she said.

"Why don't you want me to talk about you anyway?" Dempsey asked.

"Well, several reasons. Firstly they're _not supposed to know_ -"

"I hadda tell 'em somethin' they were startin' to get suspicious I hadn't had a date in three months."

Storing that rather pleasant nugget of information away to question him about at a later date, Harry went on. "Secondly, I don't like being talked about anyway -"

"Why?"

_I don't like being the centre of attention. And I hate the idea that you're talking about me and I don't even know what you're saying. _"Never mind. Thirdly, it makes me feel like some worthless conquest of yours. So stop it, please." Forgetting her lunch, she pushed past him and made for the door.

"Don't you even wanna know what I said?"

"Not really," she replied, not stopping.

"Not about how she's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen?"

Harry paused, her hand on the doorknob.

"Not about how I treasure every moment with her? Not about how the only reason I…get up in the morning is to see her?…You don't wanna hear how…how much I need her?"

A smile forced its way onto Harry's face as she turned. "Do you mean that?" she asked quietly.

"Sure I do. Come on Harry, you know I feel about you."

"I really don't," she replied seriously.

"Seems I've been telling the wrong people then. I should be telling you how happy I am to be dating my best friend."

"You told them that?"

"Yeah."

Harry considered him for a moment and smiled again. "What did they say?"

Dempsey smiled back and looked her straight in the eye. "They said they didn't believe there was anybody I was better friends with than you."

Harry just smiled at him affectionately.

"Am I out of trouble, then?" Dempsey checked.

"Yes," she replied, kissing him quickly on the lips. "Do you know how wonderful you are?"

He grinned. Harry never went over-the-top with compliments, so he knew she really meant it. "How about a practical demonstration?" he suggested innocently in response to her question.

Harry pushed him back against the lockers and kissed him, reminded forcibly of the morning after she had got drunk and feared the two of them had slept together. Except then she had been angry and confused, and now all she felt was desire as their lips moved together, as his arms came up to hold her tightly…

The door opened and they sprang apart guiltily. Fry was stood open-mouthed in the doorway.

"Fry, if you tell anyone about this I will come around to your house in the middle of the night and blow your head off," Dempsey promised fiercely. There was no way he was risking Spikings putting a stop to this - to them.

Fry stood gaping for a few moments longer before turning on his heel and walking away quickly. The moment he was gone Harry burst out laughing.

Dempsey turned to her, still scowling. "Hey, it ain't funny. What if he tells someone?"

Harry shook her head. "Oh, he won't," she assured him through her laughter. "He's terrified of you, he always has been."

"Yeah, well he should be." He planted one more kiss on Harry's lips. "I'd better be going back. I told them I was going to the men's room."

"Yes, me too," Harry agreed.

"You told 'em you were going to the men's room too? Don't you think that'll give us away, Tiger?"

Harry gave him a withering look. "Shut up. Now go on, I'll be there in a minute."

--

_Thank you for reading. Now review please =)_


	4. Chapter 4

_Okay people always seem to write Fry as this really brainless fool but he wouldn't be in SI10 if he was that stupid. He's not an idiot, he's just a bit out of his depth. So I've tried to clever him up a bit in this chapter._

--

"Empty office, Harry," Dempsey observed.

"Hmm? Oh, go and have lunch or something. Anything to shut you up," she replied absently, not looking up from the file she was frowning at. She didn't realise Dempsey was approaching her until one finger appeared over the top of the file and pushed it down to reveal his grinning face.

"Lots o' things you can do in an empty office," he persisted.

"Well go and do one of them, I'm trying to concentrate," she responded in a frustrated tone, pulling the file away and swivelling in her chair to be out of his reach.

He moved around the desk and leaned down. With one sweep he moved her hair out of the way, following the movement through to rest his hand on the back of her neck. He murmured into her ear; "Harry, I've been resisting the urge to kiss you all day and if I can't kiss you soon I'm gonna have to jump you in front of everyone."

Her skin tingled where he was touching her, but she tried to appear unaffected as she very deliberately put the file down on her desk before standing and turning to lean against it. "As I said, anything to shut you up," she said coolly.

Uncertainty flitted across his face. "You don't wanna kiss me?" he asked, momentarily forgetting that if Harry didn't want to do something there was no power on the earth that could persuade her to do it.

Harry's eyes flickered to his lips, which didn't go unnoticed by him. She nodded, feeling too awkward to speak.

His ego secure, Dempsey turned his thoughts to embarrassing her. "Go on then, say it," he said with a grin.

"Say what?" she asked, stalling. Dempsey saw her face go slightly pink. He brought his face closer to hers. "Say 'I want to kiss you'," he instructed, brushing his nose against hers and almost, _almost_ touching their lips together. Heat flooded through his body and he hoped his teasing was having the same effect on her.

She put her hands on his chest and pushed him back a little. "Dempsey…" she began in a warning tone. She was not sure what she was going to say but was spared the trouble of thinking of something by his interruption.

"Why do you still call me Dempsey?" he asked, taking the conversation in a different direction.

"I suppose I just haven't got used to it," she explained.

Dempsey raised a hand to her face and used his whole hand to push her hair off her face and behind her ear. "Go on, say it," he repeated more quietly.

Harry had to look away as she said it, her face becoming pink again. "I…want…to kiss you," she said hesitantly, and Dempsey brought his lips crashing down on hers and she didn't care about him embarrassing her any more.

"You two are going to have to find somewhere better to do that," came an uncomfortable voice.

Harry immediately turned and saw Fry averting his eyes as he came in the room.

"Fry you creep, what, are you spying on us or somethin'?" Dempsey burst out, but Harry laid a hand on his arm.

"Calm down," she told him firmly.

"Yeah. Well, just don't tell anyone," he said.

"What's it worth?" Fry asked suddenly.

"Your life?"

"I'd settle for a pint," he suggested.

Dempsey narrowed his eyes at Fry. "Harry, I think this guy's tryin'a get me to pay for his booze," he said suspiciously.

"Yes, I rather got that impression," she replied, engrossed in her file again.

"Alright, one pint," Dempsey agreed reluctantly.

"Are you and Fry having a date?" Dave asked as he came in with Chas, having caught the tail end of the conversation.

Dempsey got the distinct feeling any control he had over the conversation was gone.

"No, but somebody is and Dempsey's trying to bribe a police officer not to tell," Fry said without looking round.

Harry wondered where Fry had got his shot of courage from, and concluded that he was probably drunk. That was before the full implication of his words sunk in. She got her lunch out of a drawer and tried not to look guilty.

"The partners in crime got it together?" Chas asked, and Harry froze with her sandwich halfway towards her mouth.

She reflected later that if she and Dempsey had not both immediately looked at the other, they might have got away with it, but as the others fell about laughing she knew it was too late.

Fry shrugged apologetically at her. "They already guessed," he told her.

"I'm going to pour that pint all over your head," Dempsey threatened half-heartedly.


	5. Chapter 5

Spikings led his moaning, complaining and aching team back into the office. They had just made a major drugs bust, but the dealers had not given up without a fight and now most of them were sporting black eyes and interesting bruises.

He turned to survey his team. "I'm very proud of you all," he announced. "You did very well."

"So can we have the afternoon off?" Dempsey asked, the only one brave enough to voice what they were all thinking.

"No, Dempsey, you all still have to write up your reports and a call came in this morning about some Lord being followed. It's been foisted off onto us so you can investigate that as well." His eyes narrowed on Dempsey's shoulder. "What have you done to your shoulder, Lieutenant? You're bleeding."

Dempsey looked sideways at his shoulder. "I caught it on some broken glass when I was going out that window. It's fine."

"Makepeace, have a look at his shoulder. If it's too bad he'll have to go to hospital to get it checked out," Spikings ordered as he went into his office.

Dempsey sighed in annoyance; his shoulder was fine! As he made to shrug his jacket off he exclaimed: "Ouch!" _Okay, maybe not so fine._ "Help me out here, Harry," he asked. "I can't put my arm back to get my jacket off."

Harry stepped forwards and slid his jacket off his shoulders, letting it drop down off his arms so that he wouldn't have to strain his shoulder. She left it on the desk and turned back to him. As she helped him take off his gun, a smile spread slowly over his face.

"I gotta tell you Harry, I been dreaming of you undressin' me like this."

Harry gave him a disapproving look. "Behave, Lieutenant," she said sternly, starting on his shirt buttons.

He waited silently as she undid the first one, until he couldn't contain himself any longer. "This'd be more fun the other way around," he said, raising his hand and letting one finger rest at the top of her blouse.

Harry's breath hitched but she was acutely aware of the fact that they were in the office, and at least three people were watching them at that moment. As she caught their eye, they all looked away - except for Dave, who winked. He had assured them that he, Fry and Chas had not told anybody of their confirmed suspicions, but Harry was never sure whether to trust them. "Dempsey, be quiet," she ordered, but her voice carried less conviction than she would have liked as she pulled his hand away.

Dempsey continued to look straight into her eyes and Harry continued to avoid looking at him as she finished undoing his shirt and slid it off his shoulders. She prayed that she wasn't blushing, studiously ignoring the fact that he was stood in front of her half-naked. She examined his shoulder carefully, checking that there was no broken glass in the wound and shooting sympathetic looks at him when he winced. She had the sudden urge to kiss him but there were still half a dozen people watching.

"It's still bleeding, you need a bandage putting on at least," she told him. "We'll have to go to the hospital."

Dempsey rolled his shoulder and grimaced. "I think I pulled a muscle too."

Harry glanced over his shoulder to make sure nobody was looking their way before kissing his chest. He smiled and kissed her on the lips.

"Not in the office, James, somebody will see," she hissed, making sure nobody was looking.

Dempsey's eyes widened in surprise. "Say that again," he told her.

"Not in the office, somebody will see?" she repeated, bemused.

"No." He kissed her again. "You called me James."

"Why does it matter that I called you James?" she asked, picking up his shirt and holding it up for him.

He put his arms through the sleeves and turned back to her. "It's kinda sexy," he murmured, a slight smile playing around his lips as he watched her, not looking as he buttoned up his shirt.

As Harry fished for something to say she suddenly realised - "Hey, you can do your shirt buttons yourself!"

"Yeah, but why pass up the opportunity for you to take it off?" he asked, his face full of mischief.

"Oh, grow up Dempsey," she said, frustrated. "Get dressed and I'll tell Spikings I'm driving you to the hospital."

"Hey, I can drive myself," he protested.

"Driving here is probably why your shoulder is still bleeding, so no you can't."

"If I didn't know better I'd say you actually cared about me, Harry," Dempsey said cheerfully as he struggled to put his jacket on, wincing in pain.

"We're just partners, Dempsey," she said, but she was smiling.

"Ah, we were never just partners," he replied, and pulled her into a kiss. She heard wolf-whistling from behind them but for once she decided she didn't care, and just kissed him deeper.

When at last she pulled away she was smiling but blushing furiously. Dempsey saw her face turn into a picture of dumb-struck horror and span around to see Spikings.

They stared at each other for a few seconds, and the other people in the office stared between them, as Spikings rubbed his hair and Dempsey and Harry worried about what he would say.

Spikings drew himself up; they prepared themselves for a telling-off. Then he relaxed again and simply asked, "How is the Lieutenant's shoulder?"

"It's still bleeding a little, sir, he needs to go to the hospital and get it sorted out," Harry told him nervously.

"Right. Off you go then."

They headed for the door as quickly as they could, but Spikings' voice stopped them as they reached it.

"In future, keep that sort of thing for when you're not working, alright?"

The laughter of SI10 echoed after them down the corridor.

"DO SOME BLOODY WORK!"

--

This turned out differently to how I thought it would, meaning that I now have an idea for the Pellinor fic my friend suggested. Yay!

Just one more chapter after this then (for now anyway).

Thanks for reading =)


	6. Chapter 6

Here's the final chapter of After. It's short, but...It's D+M xD

There's another oneshot to come, which I'll post as a new story.

--

Harry was bored. The stakeout had been completely dead - the closest thing they saw to criminal activity was a group of 11-year-olds smoking. She and Dempsey had been in his car for four hours, ever since darkness fell. It was now 1.30, and Harry was starting to feel the late hour.

"I told you, if you're tired just go to sleep and I'll watch for a bit," Dempsey had said after she had yawned for the tenth time.

"I'm fine," she had insisted, and they had lapsed into quiet. The darkness surrounded them like a warm blanket.

Harry stared silently out of the front window and down the street, and Dempsey sat in the driver's seat with his eyes fixed on the house out of the window on his side.

"Harry," he said after a while. He was still staring ot of the window so she followed his gaze, trying to see what he was looking at.

"What?" she asked after a while when she saw nothing and Dempsey did not elaborate.

His head turned towards her but his eyes had not reached her before he returned his gaze out of the window. "Harry," he said again, and this time she said nothing as she sensed that he wanted to say something important not related to work. As he ran a hand through his hair she kept her eyes on the side of his face, illuminated gently from the streelight outside.

He turned his head towards her again, keeping his gaze lowered. His eyes rested on her hand which was laying beside her on the seat, and he placed his hand on top of hers.

"I just hadda tell ya…" he began hesitantly, before finishing in a rush: "I'm so in love with you."

Harry felt her body tingle all over with delight and a smile spread itself over her face. She'd come to love him with all her heart over the nearly four months they'd been together, but she'd been too shy to tell him and too modest to expect her full feelings to be reciprocated.

In the face of her silence Dempsey at last looked into her face and she caught sight of his anxiety before it was replaced with the biggest grin she'd ever seen as he saw her expression. Her own smile widened in response and she found herself kissing him tenderly.

"Want to know a secret?" she asked, and he lifted an eyebrow slightly. "I love you too."

"Well, sure, what's not to love?" he quipped, and she rolled her eyes at him as she shook her head and grinned.

"You're still a raving lunatic," she pointed out.

"Oh, no," he said seriously. "I'm much worse than that."

"How so?"

"I'm an _American_ raving lunatic!"

--

Hehe :P Typing the oneshot now!


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